Salute to Solanum (lycopersicum) pt.3

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dig this tom festAnd for the final part of the tomato triptych, here’s a great event next Saturday organised by Dig This Nursery/Happy Seeds in New Cross as part of the Chelsea Fringe.

It’s a free all-day tomato planting extravaganza with kids making wooden planters, filling them with plants which will be then distributed outside shops in the New Cross area. And how many varieties of Tomato will be planted, do you think? 92! How mad is that? Dig This certainly know a bit about the ‘umble tomato! Have a look here for the varieties they have on sale.

Added to this, there’s food and drink, music, various crafts and 50% discount on tomato plants and off the happy seeds range. More info here. Hopefully soon I will be taking the Dig This challenge and see how my tomatoes get on with their secret weapon (diluted horse manure as liquid feed.)

The event is on the 17th May, 11-6pm at St James’, SE14 6AD, New Cross Gate (one street down from Goldsmiths University). New Cross/New Cross Gate Station.

Salute to Solanum (lycopersicum) pt.2

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You're so EdibleI popped up to Forest Hill station this afternoon for the Edible High Road event. A good load of people braved the changeable weather, a kids school band belted out some tunes and there were a couple of stalls handing out free plants, how good is that for a Saturday afternoon?

I got some healthy pea plants off the Forest Hill Society and a handful of tomato seedlings off Mihaly from Dig This Nursery in New Cross (they must be the only garden centre in the UK with a record shop attached) who knows a few things about tomatoes (see the post above).

All the plants went in the garden as soon as I got home and put under some protection just to settle them in tonight (even though they’ve been hardened off.) I do hope the event got a few more people interested in that there gardening lark!

Didn’t he do well? Not really

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didn't he do well

I painted two panels of the fence this afternoon after a hiatus of two years. I have two more panels to do to complete the job which I will get around to next weekend if all goes well (that’s what I said last time!)

Thanks to Theresa Webb at Kitchen Buddy for letting us know about her great wild food walk in Hither Green on Sunday 18th May as part of the Hither Green Festival & also for telling us about the London Permaculture Festival on 6th July 2014.Hither Green Festival

Also thanks to Lewisham Gardens for letting us know about a few things, firstly The Hither Green Festival Seed Swap event on Sunday 18th May (see above) and for informing us about the World Naked Gardening Day over the weekend. I couldn’t stop laughing as how mad is that? Do some naked pruning in your front garden next year on world naked gardening day and your neighbours WILL be calling the police!

World naked gardening day

And finally for letting us know about next week’s Edible High Road festival in Forest Hill. It’s on Saturday 10th May at Forest Hill Station Forecourt, Devonshire Road, Forest Hill SE23 3HB from 2pm-4pm with live music and free plants. I got some great seeds and tomato plants there last year and it’s worth a visit. For more info here.

Naked

Southern Freeez

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There’s been another frost warning tonight so the big cover up continues here in SE23. Listening to the last episode of Gardening with Tim & Joe on BBC Radio Leeds this afternoon, Joe mentioned using something as simple as old newspapers as frost protection which, being cheap and cheerful, is well up our street!

bubble and squeekMe, I’m using a combination of some old bubble-wrap (from an e-bay purchase) over my tomato plants, some fleece over my early potatoes and jam jars and a top off a seed propagator over some sunflower seedlings, all various ways of doing the same job. Jack Frost please be kind to us tonight!

Fleece and jar and lid

This is a warning…

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I’ve just heard on the local weather forecast that we might have possible frosts later this week so it’s out with the horticultural fleece, net curtains, cloches and jam jars to stick over those tender seedlings that are in the garden for some protection! I’ve a couple of tomatoes plants and some spuds I’ve put in early that’ll be getting covered up over the next few nights.

Chirpy chirpy cheap cheap

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jims gardening tips

A big shout to our good mate Jim N for sending us some great gardening tips (culled from lots of different blogs) found on the web. There’s some right gems here, our favourite is this brilliant one above taken from a farm of your home, talk about making the most out of something!

Rotten apple

Also a big thanks to another good mate of ours Will J for passing on the story about an anonymous artist in the US who is turning rubbish into something useful on the streets. The project is called Rotten Apple, the above is our favourite, well clever! More on the DIY pallet compost bin here.

The long good Friday

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Big up joe maiden!

A few weeks ago after listening to Joe Maiden on BBC Radio Leeds’ Gardening with Tim and Joe I took the risk and bunged in some of my seed spuds and now they’re well on their way (thanks Joe, you know your stuff!) But there’s a piece of fleece at the side just in case to stick over the plants if there’s any risk of frost as you can’t take anything for granted weatherwise.

leaf and spudTalking of spuds, Good Friday is traditionally the day to plant them, but I wasn’t around. As I was off work and the weather was great (and it was a root day from 1pm, man) I stuck the remainder of my well chitted seed potatoes in today.

In the hole

As per the RHS website I stuck them in five inches deep (with the chitted end upwards), twelve inches apart in two rows (two feet between each row). Also to aid growth I stuck some ripped up Comfrey leaves under them (I was given a root of Comfrey a couple of years ago by our good mate Scarlett and boy has it grown!) When the shoots start to show through on the spuds I’ll be earthing them up. Early spuds are good stuff and well easy to grow. If you haven’t got a garden, you can stick them in a plastic dustbin, builders sacks or even carrier bags!

Garlic, you're too wild!Also while “tipping around” the garden today I found a lone wild garlic not growing too wildly around by the pond but growing all the same!